Young Goodman Brown is setting out from his home in Salem village, saying goodbye to

his pretty wife, Faith, who's wearing her new pink ribbons. He has a little task to attend to
that night, but Faith doesn't want him to go. She's afraid of the dark and of what might
happen to her all alone. Goodman Brown tells her to say her prayers and go to sleep.
As he sets off into the forest, Goodman Brown meets an Old Man, who has an uncanny
resemblance to Brown. As it turns out, the Old Man was good friends with Goodman
Brown's father and grandfather. The Old Man intimates that he is the devil and offers to
lend Goodman Brown his walking stick, which is carved in the shape of a snake. Goodman
Brown insists that he and his forefathers have always been good Christian men.
As they go further into the forest, they come across Goody Cloyse, an old woman known
in the village for her piety and good deeds. Goodman Brown hides so she won't see him, so
he can avoid discussing why he is walking through the forest at night with the Old Man.
However, she meets up with the Old Man in the forest, where she confirms that the Old
Man is indeed the Devil and reveals herself as a witch. She's on the way to an evil
ceremony, where two new converts will be welcomed into a dark cult.
More and more people from the village, including the preacher and the governor's wife,
filter through the woods. Goodman Brown is shocked that so many seemingly upright
citizens secretly practice devil worship. Grappling with this information, Goodman Brown
looks up to see a pink ribbon float down from a branch. Crying, 'My Faith is gone!', he
realizes that even his beloved wife has gone to the dark side.
In a clearing, a large crowd has gathered around a bonfire. They chant twisted versions of
hymns and make ready to welcome the two new converts. A veiled woman is led to the fire,
where she stands next to Goodman Brown. It's Faith. The two stare into each other's eyes
as a dark figure says they have been initiated into the truth of evil: from now on, they will
see the darkness lurking underneath everything. Desperate, Goodman Brown screams to
Faith to look to Heaven and resist temptation.
Suddenly, Goodman Brown finds himself alone in the forest. It's morning. Had the whole
thing been a wretched dream? He staggers back to the village, where he's disgusted by the
sight of the preacher preparing his sermon and Goody Cloyse teaching a little girl her
prayers. Arriving home, he refuses to speak to Faith, who is again wearing her pink
ribbons. He lives out the rest of his life in suspicion and despair and dies a lonely, bitter old
man.

Story Analysis: Critique of Puritan Society

Like so many of Hawthorne's short stories and novels, 'Young Goodman Brown' takes
place in Puritan New England, specifically in Salem, Massachusetts. You're probably
already aware of Salem's grisly history as home of the infamous Witch Trials, during which
dozens of women and men were accused of witchcraft, and many were executed. One of
Hawthorne's ancestors was actually involved in the trials and sentenced several women to
death. Some scholars have suggested that this family legacy may have been what sparked
Hawthorne's interest in writing about - and criticizing - Puritan society.
At the beginning of the story, the Old Man reveals that he was present during two major
events from Goodman Brown's family history: when Goodman Brown's grandfather
whipped a Quaker woman in the streets of Salem, and when Goodman Brown's father
burned an Indian village during King Philip's War.
Hawthorne drew these details from the actual history of Salem village. Founded by Puritans
seeking religious tolerance, Salem quickly became a repressive society where those who
did not follow sanctioned behavior were violently punished. The Quakers, the American
Indians, and those convicted of witchcraft were among those brutally treated by the
Puritans, and Hawthorne's story suggests that underneath Salem village's pious exterior,
hypocrisy and intolerance prevail.
BACKGROUND

Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in the 1800’s and wrote this. He lived in Salem,
Massachusetts. That’s where they had the famous witch trials. Hawthorne was
descended from one of the judges from that trial. He wrote a lot about the puritans (The
Scarlet Letter). In Puritan times, men were called Goodman, and married women were
called Goody.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Young Goodman Brown: The main character of this story. He is having a crisis with
Faith and is being tempted by the devil.

Faith: Goodman Brown’s wife. She also can be seen as his Faith.

The man (Devil): He is the person who Brown goes to meet in the forest and does the
tempting on young Goodman Brown. He can appear as different people and represents
the evil inside a person.

Goody Cloyse: An old lady who taught Goodman Brown when he was a boy and is
someone he turns to for spiritual guidance.

Deacon Gookin: Another person Goodman Brown considers a spiritual guide.

The minister: The town minister of Salem.

PLOT

The story starts out at sunset it Salem with Young Goodman Brown saying goodbye to
his wife Faith. His wife is wearing a pink ribbon (important detail) and she doesn’t want
him to go. He tells her he has to go and will be back tomorrow. He feels bad because he
thinks she is so innocent and he is off to do bad things.

He goes into the forest and meets this guy. In olden times, the forest was considered a
place of evil so right off the bat you know he is up to no good. The guy has been waiting
for Brown and tells him he is late. Goodman Brown says, "Faith kept me back a while".
The guy kind of looks like Goodman Brown just older and he has a staff. He tells him
they have to start a journey. Brown says he has come too far the forest and he is going
home. He says his father and grandfather never came into the woods like he has to
meet this guy. The man says he knew Goodman Brown’s father and grandfather and
they have walked this path many times. Brown says he finds that hard to believe
because the members of his family are good Christians. The man says he is on friendly
terms with all kinds of good Christians all over New England, even the governor. Then
Goodman Brown says he doesn’t know the governor but he would never be able to look
the minister in his eyes if kept going on this path. The man laughs at him. Goodman
Brown is running out of excuses so he says he can’t go on because of his wife…his Faith.

The devil then points down the path to an old lady who is hobbling along. The old lady is
Goody Cloyse. Goodman Brown doesn’t want her to see him so he hides in the trees.
The man walks up to Goody Cloyse and she greets him as "The Devil!" Goody Cloyse
recognizes the devil in the form of Goodman Brown’s grandfather who was a friend of
hers. They talk and it’s obvious she is in with the devil. She is going to a communion in
the forest where they are initiating a young man…could this be Goodman Brown…I think
so. The devil offers her his staff and throws it down on the ground and it turns into
snake. (In ancient Egypt, the sorcerers had staffs that turned into snakes. Hawthorne
makes note of this here. Moses had a staff too it turned into a snake and ate all the
other snakes. Say this to look smart) Then the snake and Goody Cloyse disappear.
Goodman Brown doesn’t want to go any further so the man leaves him. Brown is sitting
there when two men came riding through the forest on horses. Brown hides in the trees
again. The minister and Deacon Gookin are the two men riding up. They are talking
about the evil communion and how everyone from all over is going to be there because
a young woman will be taking the communion….hmmm, who could that be? Well,
Goodman Brown is pretty upset by all this. All the spiritual leaders in his town are in
with the devil. Then he calls out that with his Faith, he will stand firm against the devil.
Then he hears all these voices that sound like the people in his town and the voice of a
young woman and then a scream. Then a pink ribbon (remember the pink ribbon?)
comes fluttering down in front of Goodman Brown. He is then really upset and cries out,
"My Faith is gone!". So, he gets all crazy and starts running down the path.

He comes into this clearing where there is a big fire and a bunch of people singing and
such. All the people were the people from his town and Indians. Then, this guy at an
altar (the devil) says "Bring Forth the converts!". So Goodman Brown goes forward. The
head guy looks like his dead father and in front of the altar is a woman. So, Goodman
Brown is led to the altar and is standing there with this woman. The devil gives a
speech about how everyone they know is here and that basically everyone is evil no
matter who they are. Evil is the nature of mankind. He tells Goodman Brown to look at
the woman and they look at each other. The woman is Faith. Well, they are about to
both be baptized by blood or fire when Goodman Brown yells to his wife to resist the
devil. Right when he yells this, everything disappears and he is all alone.

The next day, Goodman Brown returns home to Salem from the forest. He sees the
minister, Goody Cloyse, and the Deacon and he can’t look at them. They look normal
but he sees them as evil now. Then he sees his wife who is excited to see him but he
walks away from her. Then basically Goodman Brown lives a miserable life because he
doesn’t trust anyone and thinks they are all evil.

THINGS TO MAKE YOU LOOK SMART

 The main point about this story is was it real or a dream? Hawthorne asks that
question himself at the end. Did Goodman Brown fall asleep in the forest and
dream the whole thing or did he really meet the devil? There is no right answer
and it can be argued both ways.
 Faith represents more than just his wife. It can be religious faith or faith in
mankind.
 Remember, Hawthorne lived in Salem where they had the witch trials. The
Puritans put a lot of innocent people to death in the name or religion. This story
says a lot about how people may appear to be very religious but still are evil.
 Why did the devil appear to Goodman Brown to resemble his father? Maybe to
convince him?
French Revolution The French Revolution (1789 to 1799) was a
period of political and social upheaval in the history of France, during
which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute
monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy,
underwent radical change to forms based on Enlightenment principles
of nationalism, citizenship, and inalienable rights. French Revolution

On a stormy night, in the tempestuous times of the French

Revolution, a young German was returning to his lodgings, at a late
hour, across the old part of Paris. The lightning gleamed, and the loud
claps of thunder rattled through the lofty narrow streets—but I should
first tell you something about this young German.

Göttingen A college town in the middle of Germany. Google

MapGöttingen
Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 to 1772), Swedish scientist,
philosopher, Christian mystic, theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific
career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered
into a spiritual phase, in which he experienced dreams and visions,
where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly
doctrine to reform Christianity. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he
wrote and published 18 theological works, of which the best known
was Heaven and Hell (1758). Emanuel Swedenborg
perdition Loss of the soul; eternal damnation; hell. perdition

Gottfried Wolfgang was a young man of good family. He had studied

for some time at Göttingen, but being of a visionary and enthusiastic
character, he had wandered into those wild and speculative doctrines
which have so often bewildered German students. His secluded life,
his intense application, and the singular nature of his studies, had an
effect on both mind and body. His health was impaired; his imagination
diseased. He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual
essences, until, like Swedenborg, he had an ideal world of his own
around him. He took up a notion, I do not know from what cause, that
there was an evil influence hanging over him; an evil genius or spirit
seeking to ensnare him and ensure his perdition. Such an idea
working on his melancholytemperament produced the most gloomy
effects. He became haggard and desponding. His friends discovered
the mental malady preying upon him, and determined that the best
cure was a change of scene; he was sent, therefore, to finish his
studies amidst the splendors and gayeties of Paris.

Sorbonne Refers to Collège de Sorbonne, Founded in 1257, located

in Paris, France. A intellectual center of France. Google MapSorbonne
catacombs A cave, grotto, or subterraneous place of large extent
used for the burial of the dead.
charnel-house A building, room, or vault in which the bones or bodies
of the dead are placed; a charnel. (AHD)

Wolfgang arrived at Paris at the breaking out of the revolution. The

popular delirium at first caught his enthusiastic mind, and he was
captivated by the political and philosophical theories of the day: but the
scenes of blood which followed shocked his sensitive nature, disgusted
him with society and the world, and made him more than ever a
recluse. He shut himself up in a solitary apartment in the Pays Latin,
the quarter of students. There, in a gloomy street not far from the
monastic walls of the Sorbonne, he pursued his favorite speculations.
Sometimes he spend hours together in the great libraries of Paris,
those catacombs of departed authors, rummaging among
their hoards of dusty and obsolete works in quest of food for his
unhealthy appetite. He was, in a manner, a literary ghoul, feeding in
the charnel-house of decayed literature.

Wolfgang, though solitary and recluse, was of an ardent temperament,

but for a time it operated merely upon his imagination. He was too shy
and ignorant of the world to make any advances to the fair, but he was
a passionate admirer of female beauty, and in his lonely chamber
would often lose himself in reveries on forms and faces which he had
seen, and his fancy would deck out images of loveliness far surpassing
the reality.

While his mind was in this excited and sublimated state, a dream
produced an extraordinary effect upon him. It was of a female face of
transcendent beauty. So strong was the impression made, that he
dreamt of it again and again. It haunted his thoughts by day, his
slumbers by night; in fine, he became passionately enamored of this
shadow of a dream. This lasted so long that it became one of those
fixed ideas which haunt the minds of melancholy men, and are at times
mistaken for madness.

Marais Le Marais is a district in Paris, France, traditionally a bourgeois

area, but also well-known historically. Le Marais
Place de Graève A plaza now called the City Hall Plaza (place de
l'Hôtel de Ville). Place de Grève was the site of most executions in
Paris. The gallows and the pillory stood there. Google MapPlace de
Grève
Hôtel de Ville French for “City Hall”, since 1357. The building housing
the City of Paris's administration. Hôtel de Ville, Paris
guillotine A machine to cut people's head off. guillotine

Such was Gottfried Wolfgang, and such his situation at the time I
mentioned. He was returning home late on stormy night, through some
of the old and gloomy streets of the Marais, the ancient part of Paris.
The loud claps of thunder rattled among the high houses of the narrow
streets. He came to the Place de Graève, the square, where public
executions are performed. The lightning quivered about the pinnacles
of the ancient Hôtel de Ville, and shed flickering gleams over the open
space in front. As Wolfgang was crossing the square, he shrank back
with horror at finding himself close by the guillotine. It was the height
of the reign of terror, when this dreadful instrument of death stood ever
ready, and its scaffold was continually running with the blood of the
virtuous and the brave. It had that very day been actively employed in
the work of carnage, and there it stood in grim array, amidst a silent
and sleeping city, waiting for fresh victims.

vicissitude Regular change or succession from one thing to another;

Irregular change; revolution; mutation.

Wolfgang's heart sickened within him, and he was turning shuddering

from the horrible engine, when he beheld a shadowy
form, cowering as it were at the foot of the steps which led up to the
scaffold. A succession of vivid flashes of lightning revealed it more
distinctly. It was a female figure, dressed in black. She was seated on
one of the lower steps of the scaffold, leaning forward, her face hid in
her lap; and her long dishevelled tresses hanging to the ground,
streaming with the rain which fell in torrents. Wolfgang paused. There
was something awful in this solitary monument of woe. The female had
the appearance of being above the common order. He knew the times
to be full of vicissitude, and that many a fair head, which had once
been pillowed on down, now wandered houseless. Perhaps this was
some poor mourner whom the dreadful axe had rendered desolate,
and who sat here heart-broken on the strand of existence, from which
all that was dear to her had been launched into eternity.

ravishingly in a ravishing manner; To seize and carry away by

violence; to snatch by force.

He approached, and addressed her in the accents of sympathy. She

raised her head and gazed wildly at him. What was his astonishment at
beholding, by the bright glare of the lighting, the very face which had
haunted him in his dreams. It was pale and disconsolate,
but ravishingly beautiful.
Trembling with violent and conflicting emotions, Wolfgang again
accosted her. He spoke something of her being exposed at such an
hour of the night, and to the fury of such a storm, and offered to
conduct her to her friends. She pointed to the guillotine with a gesture
of dreadful signification.

“I have no friend on earth!” said she.

“but you have a home,” said Wolfgang.

“Yes—in the grave!”

The heart of the student melted at the words.

“If a stranger dare make an offer,” said he, “without danger of being
misunderstood, I would offer my humble dwelling as a shelter; myself
as a devoted friend. I am friendless myself in Paris, and a stranger in
the land; but if my life could be of service, it is at your disposal, and
should be sacrificed before harm or indignity should come to you.”

There was an honest earnestness in the young man's manner that had
its effect. His foreign accent, too, was in his favor; it showed him not to
be a hackneyed inhabitant of Paris. Indeed, there is an eloquence in
true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted. The homeless stranger
confided herself implicitly to the protection of the student.

Pont Neuf The Pont Neuf, French for the “New Bridge,” is the oldest
standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris. Google MapPont Neuf
Henry the Fourth Henry IV (1553 to 1610), ruled as King of France
from 1589 to 1610. A major figure in French history. His stature on
Pont Neuf bridge was built in 1614, 4 years after his assassination, and
destroyed during the French revolution, but rebuilt in 1818 and still
stands today. Henry the Fourth

He supported her faltering steps across the Pont Neuf, and by the
place where the statue of Henry the Fourth had been overthrown by
the populace. The storm had abated, and the thunder rumbled at a
distance. All Paris was quiet; that great volcano of human passion
slumbered for a while, to gather fresh strength for the next day's
eruption. The student conducted his charge through the ancient streets
of the Pays Latin, and by the dusky walls of the Sorbonne, to the
great dingyhotel which he inhabited. The old portress who admitted
them stared with surprise at the unusual sight of the melancholy
Wolfgang, with a female companion.
On entering his apartment, the student, for the first time, blushed at the
scantiness and indifference of his dwelling. He had but one chamber—
an old-fashioned saloon—heavily carved, and fantastically furnished
with the remains of former magnificence, for it was one of those hotels
in the quarter nobility. It was lumbered with books and papers, and all
the usual apparatus of a student, and his bed stood in a recess at one
end.

When lights were brought, and Wolfgang had a better opportunity of

contemplating the stranger, he was more than ever intoxicated by her
beauty. Her face was pale, but of a dazzling fairness, set off by a
profusion of raven hair that hung clustering about it. Her eyes were
large and brilliant, with a singular expression approaching almost to
wildness. As far as her black dress permitted her shape to be seen, it
was of perfect symmetry. Her whole appearance was highly striking,
though she was dressed in the simplest style. The only thing
approaching to an ornament which she wore, was a broad black band
round her neck, clasped by diamonds.

The perplexity now commenced with the student how to dispose of the
helpless being thus thrown upon his protection. He thought of
abandoning his chamber to her, and seeking shelter for himself
elsewhere. Still he was so fascinate by her charms, there seemed to
be such a spell upon his thoughts and senses, that he could not tear
himself from her presence. Her manner, too, was singular and
unaccountable. She spoke no more of the guillotine. Her grief had
abated. The attentions of the student had first won her confidence, and
then, apparently, her heart. She was evidently an enthusiast like
himself, and enthusiasts soon understand each other.

In the infatuation of the moment, Wolfgang avowed his passion for her.
He told her the story of his mysterious dream, and how she had
possessed his heart before he had even seen her. She was strangely
affected by his recital, and acknowledge to have felt an impulse
towards him equally unaccountable. It was the time for wild theory and
wild actions. Old prejudices and superstitions were done away;
everything was under the sway of the “Goddess of Reason.” Among
other rubbish of the old times, the forms and ceremonies of marriage
began to be considered superfluous bonds for honorable minds. Social
compact were the vogue. Wolfgang was too much of theorist not to be
tainted by the liberal doctrines of the day.

“Why should we separate?” said he: “our heart are united; in the eye of
reason and honor we are as one. What need is there of sordid forms
to bind high soul together?”
The stranger listened with emotion: she had evidently received
illumination at the same school.

“You have no home nor family,” continued he: “Let me be everything to

you, or rather let us be everything to one another. if form is necessary,
form shall be observed — there is my hand. I pledge myself to you
forever.”

“Forever?” said the stranger, solemnly.

“Forever!” repeated Wolfgang.

The stranger clasped the hand extended to her: “Then I am yours,”

murmured she, and sank upon his bosom.

The next morning the student left his bride sleeping, and sallied forth at
an early hour to seek more spacious apartments suitable to the change
in his situation. When he returned, he found the stranger lying with her
head hanging over the bed, and one arm thrown over it. He spoke to
her, but received no reply. He advanced to awaken her from her
uneasy posture. On taking her hand, it was cold—there was no
pulsation—her face was pallid and ghastly. In a word, she was a
corpse.

Horrified and frantic, he alarmed the house. A scene of confusion

ensued. The police was summoned. As the officer of police entered the
room, he started back on beholding the corpse.

“Great heaven!” cried he, “how did this woman come here?”

“do you know anything about her?” said Wolfgang eagerly.

“Do I?” exclaimed the officer: “she was guillotined yesterday.”

He stepped forward; undid the black collar round the neck of the
corpse, and the head rolled on the floor!

The student burst into a frenzy. “The fiend! the fiend has gained
possession of me!” shrieked he; “I am lost forever.”

They tried to soothe him, but in vain. He was possessed with the
frightful belief that an evil spirit had reanimated the dead body to
ensnare him. He went distracted, and died in a mad-house.

Here the old gentleman with the haunted head finished his narrative.
“And is this really a fact?” said the inquisitive gentleman.

“A fact not to be doubted,” replied the other. “I had it it from the best
authority. The student told it me himself. I saw him in a mad-house in
Paris.”

Moral Themes

Washington Irving’s “Adventure of the German Student,” like his “Legend of Sleepy
Hollow,” offers a headless hobgoblin, but with a difference. Ichabod Crane’s decapitated
horseman is a hoax; the German student’s dismasted demon is irreducibly real, and she
carries with her a moral theme: the folly of observing forms without responsibility,
attempting to satisfy lust without commitment.
Form Without Feelings
To observe form without responsibility is to abrogate the purpose of human relationships;
you may demonstrate the "form" of love but not possess the actuality. The German student
professes love for the forlorn beauty he finds shivering in the rain; he has no sense of
intimacy beyond her ravishing looks. His marriage proposal, where he admits “if form is
necessary, form shall be observed” is hollow. Like many other propositions of lusting men,
this declaration finds no satisfaction; the woman, an already-guillotined ghost, has lost,
along with her head, her humanity, her desires and her ability to respond.
Guillotines and Lust
Irving was astute enough to set his tale during the French Revolution, a time when the
Parisian mobs observed the forms of justice without mercy for their victims; the girl-ghost,
whom the student discovers in the shadow of the guillotine, is victimized twice, by the
lusting student and by the revolutionaries. The mob’s lust for her death was doubtless
satisfied, but the student’s lust never can be; the commitment to loving and common
humanity in both instances is missing. The girl is cut flesh, both to the Revolution and the
student who only wants a piece of her.
King and Student
The moral theme of lacking responsibility is symbolized in the fallen statue of Henry IV.
Henry, a figure of remarkable ambivalence in his life, tottered between Catholicism and
Protestantism from his youth up. A Catholic turned Protestant, he gained the throne by
returning to Catholicism and was ironically dispatched by a Catholic assassin. This is the
German student writ large; the student sways in his affections for the bedraggled girl, but
her face keeps bringing him back to sexual need. His fancy, as Shakespeare put it, is only
begotten in the eyes.
Women Tricked by Words
Ultimately, the moral theme of “German Student” also encompasses the mistreatment of
women by men who are lovers through their words and tricksters in their hearts. Irving
seems to say that the woman-turned-revenant, whether a victim of a seduction or of the
guillotine, deserves better both from the mob and her highly strung Teutonic lover.